Dear John Laurens
by HamiltonAsparagus
Summary: Hello, today is the birthday of John Laurens. I decided to write a brief story about his life, this is entirely non-fiction. Tribute to a soldier fallen too early.


**Dear John Laurens**

John Laurens was born on October 28, 1754 to parents Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball Laurens, in Charleston, South Carolina. Both his parents' families were prosperous in producing rice, and his father, along with one of Henry's business partners, was soon the wealthy owner of one of the largest slave trading houses in North America.

John was the eldest of five to survive infancy. He and his two brothers were tutored at home, but after his mother died, his father took them to London to complete their studies. His two sisters were left with an uncle in South Carolina.

Between 16 and 22, John was educated in Europe, and he and one of his brothers were educated beginning in 1772 in Switzerland, where they resided with a family friend.

John had expressed considerable interest in medicine and science, but when he returned to England in 1774, he yielded to his father's wish for him to become a lawyer. His father returned to South Carolina, leaving John as the guardian to his brothers, both of whom were enrolled in British schools.

In 1776, John Laurens married Martha Manning, the daughter of a family friend. His brother-in-law, William Manning, was a member of Parliament and Governor of the Bank of England.

John was determined to join and fight for the Continental Army, rather than complete his law studies and raise a family. In December of 1776, he left for Charleston, leaving his pregnant wife in London with her family, since she was too ill to make the journey.

John alighted in Charleston in April 1777, and traveled with his father to Pennsylvania, since Henry was to serve in the Continental Congress. His father tried to persuade John to complete his studies and not join the war, but when he saw that his son's mind could not be changed, he used his influence to secure an honorable position for John.

George Washington invited John to join his staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp in early August. As an aide-de-camp, John became very close friends with two of his fellow aide-de-camps, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de la Fayette.

He became known throughout camp for his reckless bravery after the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The Marquis de la Fayette later remarked that it was not Laurens's fault that he was not injured at Brandywine, since he did all things conducive for that to happen. In fact, John was injured at every battle in which he fought. However, John's behavior quickly became more consistent as visible at the Battle of Germantown in which he was injured on October 4. He and a French soldier were attempting to take a stone mansion that was occupied by the British, and while he lit a pile of straw at the house's doorstep on fire, he was shot through the shoulder with a musket ball, and he tied up the wound with his uniform sash.

On October 6, John was given an official appointment as one of General Washington's aides-de-camp, and he was promoted to the role of lieutenant colonel.

After spending the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, John marched with the Continental Army to New Jersey. In June 1778, he joined the Continental Army at the Battle of Monmouth, and had his horse shot out from under him at the beginning, while doing reconnaissance for Baron von Steuben.

In the early months of 1778, John requested his father that the 40 slaves that he stood to inherit be used for a brigade. His father agreed, but had some restrictions which postponed the effort greatly.

On December 23, 1778, John took part in a duel with General Charles Lee outside Philadelphia, after John became angry at General Lee's rude remarks about General Washington. General Lee was wounded by John's first shot, and the matter was ended by the seconds, Alexander Hamilton and Evan Edwards, before a second shot was necessary.

Laurens had a relatively fair eye on the demographics of the time. He felt that the writers of the founding documents in writing "all men are created equal," were being hypocritical by owning slaves at the same time.

He supported arming slaves and recruiting them to fight in the military in exchange for their freedom. He felt that the colonies could not contend with good Grace while still disenfranchising their slaves. This set Laurens apart from his Revolutionary peers, since he believed that blacks and whites had a similar nature and could coexist properly in situations.

In March 1779, Congress approved John's plan, sending him south to collect a regiment of 3,000 black soldiers. Since John had won a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives, he proposed his plan in 1779, in 1780, and again in 1782, each time met with extreme opposition, from figures like Governor John Rutledge and General Christopher Gadsden.

In 1779, the British, having conquered Georgia mostly due to its large population of Loyalists, began threatening Charleston. Governor Rutledge suggested the city be surrendered, causing Carolina to be neutral in the war, but John fiercely opposed that idea and continued to fight with the Continental Army against the British.

May 3, 1779 saw the battle of Cooswatchie. British forces had crossed the Savannah River, and although the troops were outnumbered two to one, Colonel William Moultrie left 100 men about two miles east of the Cooswatchie River, to guard the river crossing and provide advance warning of British arrival.

As the British approached, Colonel Moultrie wanted to send an aide to bring these troops back, and John offered to do so. Colonel Moultrie had so much faith in John that he sent 250 soldiers to join the officer.

John directly disobeyed orders, crossing the river and putting the men in line for battle. He failed to reach higher ground and several of his soldiers suffered from fire from the well-placed enemy. Laurens was injured, and his second in command hurried to join the main force, where Colonel Moultrie was forced to retreat to Charleston.

Because of John's high command and connections, this action could not go unnoticed, as noted by the lieutenant governor of South Carolina in a letter to the governor of Virginia to be mentioned to John's father. However, John commanded an infantry regiment during the failed attack on Savannah, Georgia led by General Benjamin Lincoln.

After the fall of Charleston in May 1780, John was taken prisoner by the British and sent to Philadelphia with the instructions to not leave Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, John visited his father, Henry, who was about the set sail to the Netherlands to request loans. His ship was captured en route, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Intending to return to South Carolina and expecting to be freed by a prisoner exchange in November 1780, John wrote to General Washington, requesting leave from his position as an aide-de-camp. Washington replied that the reason John had traveled south was too important to not receive his acquiescence.

In December 1780, upon his release, John was appointed by Congress to be a diplomatic ambassador to France. John rallied long and hard that his fellow aide-de-camp Alexander Hamilton be sent instead. However, the Congress and Alexander Hamilton himself were able to convince John to take the post.

He arrived in France along with Thomas Paine, joining Benjamin Franklin, who had been rallying French support for America since 1777. They met with the king of France, and were assured French support and ships that year, support which became invaluable at the Battle of Yorktown.

It is also recollected the John mentioned to the French that if they did not support the Revolution, the British might later force America to fight against them. When Laurens and Paine returned to America in August of 1781, they had 2.5 million _livres_ in silver which was the beginning of a 6 million gift and a 10 million loan.

John was also able to stop and arrange trade with the Dutch before he returned home. His father, Henry, had been exchanged for General Cornwallis toward the end of 1781, and he had proceeded forward to the Netherlands to continue his negotiations.

Laurens arrived in the United States just in time to see French forces arrive, and he joined General Washington in Virginia at the Siege of Yorktown. When the commander of a light infantry was killed on October 1, 1781, John was given command of the soldiers. He served under Colonel Alexander Hamilton and led the storming of Redoubt No. 10.

The British troops surrendered on October 17, 1781, and General Washington put Laurens in charge of representing American interests in the articles of formal surrender. A relative of Lafayette's wife was appointed by Rochambeau to represent France's interests. On October 18, 1781, John and the appointed Frenchman negotiated the terms with two British officials at Moore House. The next day, General Cornwallis signed them.

Laurens returned to South Carolina and served under General Nathanael Greene. He was the head of Greene's secret operations department. He maintained the secret channels and created a force of spies that watched the operations of the British in the British-held city of Charleston.

John fell ill with a raging fever, possibly malaria, and was confined to his bed. However, when he heard that the British were sending a force out of Charleston for supplies, he climbed out of his bed and abandoned his duties, hurrying toward the action after writing a rushed note to General Greene.

On August 26, John came before General Mordecai Gist close to the Combahee River. General Gist had learned that 300 British troops had crossed the river led by Major William Brereton in search of rice. General Gist sent soldiers to find and attack the British before sunrise. John, at his own request, was given orders to take a small group to a redoubt at Chehaw Point, to fire on the British as they retreated.

John and his group stopped at a plantation house near the Combahee River for the night. Laurens spent the night talking animatedly to ladies, turning away only two hours before he was supposed to lead the command down the river. With his group, Laurens left the plantation at about 3 in the morning on August 27.

Armed with his soldiers and weapons, John headed down to Chehaw Point. However, the British had expected this move. They had stationed about 140 soldiers in the tall grass about one mile from the group's destination.

When the enemy opened fire, John ordered his troops to charge. General Gist about two miles behind him, with reinforcements. But John wanted all the honor, and gambled his life and his troops on the chance they might be successful without General Gist.

John was shot and fatally wounded while leading the charge. General Gist came in time to cover a retreat, but there were still many losses. After Laurens death, one of John's friends, another colonel, came to serve his position and take over his work on the intelligence channels.

On August 27, 1782, at the age of 27, John Laurens was killed in the Battle of the Combahee River, as one of the last deaths of the American Revolutionary War.

John died in a "paltry little skirmish" as described by General Greene, just a few weeks before the British finally left Charleston.

John was buried close to the spot of battle, at the plantation where he'd spent his last night. After Henry Laurens returned from his imprisonment in London, he had John's remains moved to the Mepkin Plantation, his own property.

In the 19th century, the Laurens family sold their plantation. In 1936, it was purchased by Henry Luce and his wife Clare Booth Luce. In 1949, the Luce family donated expansive land from what was previously the plantation, including an enormous garden, to the Trappists for use as a monastery. Today, the land is Mepkin Abbey and Mepkin Abbey Botanical Gardens near Moncks Corner, South Carolina. The site is open for the public to view, including the graveyard of the Laurens family on the grounds of the monastery.

Other Notes of Value to Know:

**His Marriage and Family:**

John married Martha Manning on October 26, 1776, in London, England. Her father was a mentor and family friend, and one of Henry's business agents, and John had visited his house frequently while in London.

Laurens wrote to one of his uncles, "Pity has obliged me to marry". It was an unplanned marriage to preserve his honor and that of six-month pregnant Martha, as well as the legitimacy of their child.

John and his wife moved to a residence in Chelsea from London. However, John was extremely patriotic and did not want to stay in London, believing that he was obliged to fight in the American Revolution. In December 1776, he left for Charleston, but his pregnant wife, unable to sustain a months-long journey by ship in wartime, stayed back in London with her family.

John's only child, Frances Eleanor Laurens was born about January 1777, and baptized February 18, 1777.

John's father-in-law wrote to him that Frances had suffered enormous pain related to swelling of her hips and thighs, likely attributed to the carelessness of the nurse. She was not expected to live, but was beginning to recover by July 1777 from a successful hip surgery. At the age of eight, Frances was an orphan and was brought to Charleston to live with John's sister Martha Laurens Ramsay and her husband. Despite the Ramsays's objections, Frances eloped in 1795 with Francis Henderson and then James Cunnington later in life.

She died at the age of 83 in South Carolina. John had one grandson, Francis Henderson, Jr., a South Carolinian lawyer, who died young without a wife or children, as a result of alcoholism.

**Sexuality and Relationship with Alexander Hamilton:**

John is depicted in popular culture to be a homosexual, but this cannot be confirmed. In Geneva, from 16 to 19, he had no trouble attracting both men and women, but reserved most of his emotional connections for men. According to a biographer of him, this marked a pattern in his life, where he centered his life around homosocial connections with other men. To clarify, homosociality is a same-sex relationship that is not sexual or romantic in nature, rather like male bonding, mentorship, and friendship.

Shortly after his marriage, John and Alexander Hamilton became very close friends. They traded letters, even when they were kept apart by assignments or capture. The terms of John's parole prevented him from attending Alexander's wedding to Elizabeth Schuyler, despite the invitation Alexander had offered John. Although during this time emotional language was not rare in romantic friendships, the passion with which their letters were written raises questions that cannot be answered accurately.

We must be very careful in approaching this subject, as it is extremely difficult to tell. If they did have any type of relationship, they must have been very careful about it, since sodomy was a capital crime at the time. Biographers have stated that Hamilton must have at least had a crush on Laurens, based on the evidence we have. Also, biographers report that Hamilton shared intimate parts of his life with Laurens, which he never shared with anyone else. In fact, some say that Hamilton closed off parts of his life after John's death and never reopened them.

In contrast to the way Hamilton wrote, Laurens wrote less frequently and less passionately in wording, but some of the letters John wrote to Alexander may have been destroyed or lost.

Some biographers have dismissed claims that John was a homosexual, stating that their relationship was platonic, fueled by mutual ambition for fame and a devotion to the Revolution. However, the matter cannot be conclusively resolved.

**Legacy:**

Laurens is shown heroically in the 2015 Broadway musical _Hamilton_, originally played by Anthony Ramos.

In October of 1782, Alexander Hamilton wrote a letter to General Greene that conveyed deepest sadness and respect for John's character. He states a wish that such a wonderful person should not have been wasted, and that Laurens was a person who he "truly and tenderly loved".

In 1834, John Church Hamilton, Alexander's son and one of the important people in carrying on Alexander's legacy, named his youngest son Laurens Hamilton, a name that carried on through many members of the Hamilton family.

General Greene announced Laurens's death, stating, "The army has lost a brave soldier and the public a worthy citizen."

George Washington wrote that no one else had so much patriotism, and that Laurens had no discoverable faults besides bordering on rashness, which came from the purest motives.

A biographer of John Laurens wrote that John speaks to us most clearly now. He saw the equality of the races, and did not discriminate against certain people and preach liberty. He was a progressive man, our contemporary in thought, for which he deserves more recognition than the meager mention he receives in today's recollection of American history and the Revolution.

**Commemorations: **

Laurens County, Georgia is named after John Laurens.

Laurens, South Carolina and Laurens County, South Carolina are named for John Laurens and his father Henry Laurens as well.

**(I live very close to Laurens County, Georgia and I was shocked to learn, after listening to **_**Hamilton**_**, that it was named for him. This just serves to illustrate how much of a footnote he has been given.) Happy Birthday, John Laurens! I knew his birthday was coming up and it is today. I decided to write a short (cough, cough) summary of his life. This is 27 years in 8 pages, it is wholly inadequate, but I felt it was important to pay tribute to him. Once again, Happy Birthday, John Laurens, a soldier fallen much too early. ~**

**Sources are usable, I used multiple credible ones that had Creative Commons Licenses for this information, since I did not know John's life story.**


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